I originally intended to run “Ambush in the Stacks” as soon as the party entered the stacks, before they started looking for a way out, but they seemed worried enough before entering the area at all that I decided to improvise a bit and start the encounter about halfway through the skill challenge. I didn’t want them to run away as soon as things got a little dangerous, after all.

I realized belatedly that the plague spore creatures, though less complicated than the wrackspawn from the first batch of encounters, were still a pain in the butt to manage. Even with one player tracking hit points and another tracking initiative, there was too much to try and keep in mind, and I didn’t like the idea of forcing players to make Perception checks whenever they wanted to attack. (Plus, they had a light source.)

For whatever reason, I can’t wrap my head around the order of events during a surprise round, so I’ll just continue to ignore them. I don’t like having people roll Perception to determine yadda, yadda, bored now. I think I’d just rather have the creatures be invisible so long as they have any cover or concealment. That’s easier than having anyone make opposed Stealth and Perception checks. *sigh*

Anyway, the things that worked with this encounter: the cramped area (fairly small room, lots of shelves) made the creatures’ ability to move incredibly useful. The plague spores could move through the space of Medium creatures and they ignored the “blocking terrain” that the shelves represented to the rest of the party. I was a little sad I didn’t get to dominate anyone, but there will be a “next time.”

I think I’ve called this encounter “Ambush in the Stacks” since I first came up with it — I mean, it isn’t a funny name, as some of the others are (like “Between a Lock and a Hot Place”), it’s simply descriptive. The enemies in this encounter are designed to resemble the headcrabs of Half-Life, and I had a lot of fun coming up with several variations on the theme.

One of the standard features of all the headcrab creatures (called plague spores, because they’re actually plants, animated by hate … er, and magic) is they’re all tiny and slow (1 square per move action) but have a movement power that allows lets them move a greater distance with some limitations. I also wanted to make use of Stealth, but it proved cumbersome. In the final version, I think they’ll just be invisible.

The three main varieties that crop up in the ambush encounter are the skirmishers, who can “skitter” (shift) up to 6 squares, but grant combat advantage, and deal bonus damage with the skirmish trait, and when they’re hit with a close or melee attack, they can let off a cloud of poisonous spores. There are also the lurkers, which have sneak attack and inflict “toxicity,” which prevents characters from spending healing surges.

Finally, there’s the “mind crawler” which can leap up to 6 squares and attach itself to a target, then dominate the character on the following round by making a successful attack while attached. I only stuck one of those in the encounter, but it had an impact.

Before she had another opportunity for self-doubt, she experienced a feeling, like a warm hand caressing her cheek lovingly. The sensation spread from her cheek to her mouth, where it lingered for a moment before fading away into the aether. Elysia’s breath was uneven, her senses crying to feel her god’s touch again — but she had her answer. Hestia favored her course of action.

Elysia slowly rose to her feet, feeling a pronounced weakness in her legs, and smiled as she backed out of the sanctuary, keeping her eyes on the hearth until she set foot outside. She walked directly to the treasury, holding the fire poker casually at her side. When she approached the treasury guard, she made a deliberately vague gesture with the poker and murmured incoherently. The sleepy guard waved her inside.

This exchange, in its absurdity, played out as though regular and rehearsed, and Elysia hoped the guard would be too tired to recall the details when questioned later. Hestia help me, she thought. And the poor fool, as well. She’ll need it as much as I do, maybe more. She quickly located a ceremonial torch that suited her purpose and strode back out of the treasury, and muttered “thanks” to the guard on the way out.

(di — this entry is backdated, and was posted late because I fell asleep…)

Yesterday (maybe earlier today, actually, I’m pretty out of it) I finally managed to submit my site to The Webcomic List, never mind that I’ve been trying to add my comic to it for almost a year and regularly got frustrated and stopped due to slowdowns … because it’s there to send people to my comic. :P

I haven’t actually spoken with anyone who uses The Webcomic List, I found it at random while searching for places online to list my webcomic. I’m really lazy (not to mention shy) about advertising my comic (consider the evidence that it took me a year to sign up and submit my comic), and this site looked like it would more or less take care of itself. I can focus on the comic and not advertising for new readers.

I don’t think I’m on any of those, what’cha-call-it, webcomic voting sites … not for any reason other than I don’t feel the need or pressure to go and sign up for them. (Maybe someone else has put my comic on one, I certainly haven’t done it myself.) I just don’t want to get caught up in voting or politics when it comes to this whole ‘Net presence. I like new readers, I just don’t want to get involved in wars or anything.

I think, probably since I woke up this morning … oh wait, I forgot I didn’t actually go to sleep last night … *crickets chirp* Since very early this morning, probably around the time I took my shower, I’ve had my mind twisting and turning around Interactive Fiction concepts, particularly what I’d want to do with an IF game, were to make one. I’d want it to be fiction, but I’d want it to be a game.

Which is probably exactly where my problem lies when trying to wrap my head around it — IF is similar to gaming, but it’s more like reading in many ways. It’s like a book that you can EXAMINE closer when you’re interested in some details more than others. To design a particularly good piece of Interactive Fiction, I think you need to be able to make the story intuitive and engaging without being predictable.

Of course, I don’t know that, because I haven’t actually read/played any IF. I know, it’s weird. I just have this intuition about IF, from everything I’ve read that’s related to it. I think about IF similarly to the way I think of platform games (particularly 3D adventure games) where you want it to be challenging without actually being difficult — you want the player taxing their mental resources without tapping out. The moment they start looking for a hint system of a walkthrough, I think you’ve gone too far.

Of course, I think this is one of those things I’m just going to have to try first. *sigh*